Card Captor Sakura (CCS) Anime Info

"Once upon a magic night, an English sorcerer mixed Western wizardry with Eastern enchantments to create a magical deck of cards called the Clow Cards.  These cards were hidden inside a dusty old book for decades, their powers virtually wasted.  Then one fateful day, a young girl named Sakura Kinomoto discovered the book in her father's library.  When she opened it, however, the Clow Cards were gone - and so was life as she knew it.  The book's magical guardian, a diminutive winged lion, named Sakura the Cardcaptor, and after many exciting adventures she finally retrieved all the cards.  Now Sakura has earned the title Master of the Clow." -CCS Manga Season 2, Vol. 1

"Sakura's look-alike has been causing trouble and if Sakura can't figure out which Card it is, her brother may suffer the consequences.  Then a beautiful new teacher, Miss Kaho Mitsuki, impresses Sakura but Li senses trouble.  For some reason she always mysteriously appears when there is a Clow Card.  Coincidence?  And what is her relationship with Toya?  Finally, everyone at school begins to collect cards that look suspiciously like the Clow Cards.  What will happen if one of them is real?"

"The Earthy Card, the last and possibly most powerful of the Clow Cards, appears and our heroes must find a way to capture it before it destroys the city!  But even if Sakura captures The Earthy Card, she discovers her job as Cardcaptor continues - she must still face Yue, the Judge!  Will Sakura pass the fina test?  To think it all began with an old book in Sakura's basement..."

"An ominous force is brewing in Tomoeda.  New enchantments are popping up all over the city, and Sakura's Clow Cards seem completely unable to stop them.  But when Sakura taps into her inner power to fuel the Clow Cards, she unlocks a new magic of her own creation.  Thus begins this 10-year-old's quest to become the greatest magician in the world!" "Sakura is quickly learning that not all mysteries come from magic cards.  In fact, the greatest mysteries of all come from the heart.  One person who is close to the hearts of many is the charismatic Yukito.  Most of the time, he's a mild-mannered high school student with a big appetite, but Sakura knows that his true form is that of the majestic winged guardian, Yue.  As Sakura struggles to reconcile her feelings for this mysterious older boy, she finds that she has two suitors of her own:  Li Syaoran, her one-time rival, now a close friend, and Eriol Hiiragizawa, the enigmatic new transfer student.  But in this world of enchantment, not everyone's intentions are what they appear to be..." "The mysterious presence of Clow Reed continues to test Sakura with new dangers that require all of her energy to defeat. And this means that she no longer has the energy to support Yue, the Guardian of the Moon, and now he could disappear forever! Most of the time, Yue stays in his human form as Yukito, the boy Sakura has a crush on, but now that Yue is weakening, Yukito is dangerously ill.  If Sakura can't find a way to help him, boy and guardian will disappear forever!" -CCS manga season 2, vol 01, 02, 03

~*~My Take~*~

Cardcaptor Sakura is an adorable anime for shoujo fans, and fans of Clamp in general.  It's fluffy and cute with endearing female characters, pretty animation, prettier bishonen, and just enough open shounen ai to leave me desperately hungry for more.  I find that typical of Clamp work in general.  Their yaoi tends to come out overly angsty and dramatic, but their shounen ai, especially when it's just a minor blip on the radar of an overwhelmingly shoujo-centric anime, is spot on.  They give just enough fanservice to keep me coming back for more, without going so deep they end up defaulting to their 'yaoi = angst' norm.  And it helps that their endearing female characters make it too easy to stick around for those fluffy little moments of male bonding. Sakura is a sweetheart.  She's a child.  Naive, innocent, curious, wholesome, adorable, clutsy, and very dedicated to those she cares about - which is just about everyone she meets.  The cards are the same way - those that are given a personality end up being just as simple and sweet as their new master herself.  What really endears Sakura to me are her character flaws.  She actually has a few.  I find that rare with Clamp females.  If you move on to Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicles after this series, you'll see how they turn an older version of Sakura into their typical 'perfect and void' female.  All pretty innocence with no personality whatsoever.  This younger Sakura is still a child, so she still has character flaws that make her human.  She makes mistakes.  She resorts to lies in order to sneak around her family, using her cards to fool her brother while she's off endangering herself.  She blushes and stumbles and gets overexcited and clutzy and it's simply adorable.

Since Sakura is a kid, a ten-year-old, there's a lot of emphasis on leasons, the sort of moral fable stuff you expect from a children's show.  But at the same time it's mixed with things you'd never see in an American cartoon for the same age group.  That makes it...palatable for older audiences like myself. There's an episode where Sakura gets angry at Kero for being a pig (who doesn't actually need to eat, anyway, since he gets his energy from the sun) and they both blow their tops.  He throws a tantrum, pigs out on chocolate mixed with alcohol, gets drunk, and runs away from home.  He ends up befriending another little kid while Sakura realizes the error of her ways and feels guilty, looking all over for him.  They end up being reunited in a sickeningly sappy perfect way - a clow card is involved, the kid he was afraid to abandon suddenly learns that her mom will be spending more time with her from now on (such amazingly good timing), and Sakura makes a nice little drawer to be Kero's bedroom from then on.  But wait!  There was alcohol mixed in with that little fable.  A drunken pet running away from home?  You just don't see things like that in US cartoons, especially ones revolving around little girls, magic, and their animated stuffed animal-like helper.  Another episode in the second series has Kero getting into trouble again when he introduces Supi (the dark version of himself) to candy.  The little cat goes crazy, spazzing out all over the place like a total druggy and Sakura blames Kero for the mess.  If the drunken Kero didn't make you like his character, that episode will.  Spazzed out Supi is the best.

Another aspect about the series that I like, which would never be found in a 'cartoon,' is the shoujo ai.  It's downright blatant between Tomoyo and Sakura, especially after you learn that Tomoyo's mother had the same sort of crush on Sakura's mother.  When you really look at it, that aspect of the anime is rather twisted.  Tomoyo admits she grew her hair out because it reminded her mother of Nadeshiko (Sakura's mother) and how her hair used to be.  It's one thing for Tomoyo to knowingly follow in her mother's footsteps by loving her best friend.  It's entirely different to know her mother used her as a replacement for her lost unrequited love.  The hair thing is really wrong and makes me feel even worse for poor Tomoyo.  But she handles it differently from how her mother did.  She never tries to get Sakura to understand how she feels about her.  Instead, she's reconciled from the start to have an unconfessed and unrequited love.  She even goes so far as to encourage Li when she finds out he likes Sakura.  Why?  It's not because she thinks Sakura is more likely to fall in love with Li if he confesses than to fall in love with her if she were to confess.  She never even considers confessing herself.  It's like she wants to have a hidden love.  As long as she can pair Sakura up with someone else, who loves her and will make her happy, she can be satisfied.

I really get the impression that anyone would have sufficed for Tomoyo - anyone but her.  It makes me wonder if she's a masochist, if she gets some sort of pleasure out of willingly following in her mother's footsteps.  I think she does.  There's the episode where Sakura has to cut through a shield around a box of Tomoyo and her mother's 'precious things' - and you see that the things are momentos from Sakura's mother and Sakura.  I find that really twisted and pathetic.  But that's what makes Tomoyo so endearing - I feel sorry for the poor, screwed up kid.  She's human, she has flaws, and she flaunts them for the world to see. She really flaunts them for Sakura to see, considering Sakura is the most clueless character in the series.  She's a Clamp leading lady, after all, so cute stupidity is to be expected.  Tomoyo is constantly fawning over Sakura.  It makes her blush at times, but I get the impression that's because Sakura is embarrassed by being complimented - by anyone.  I don't get the impression that Sakura has the slightest clue that Tomoyo loves her just as much (and the same way) as Li does.  If this weren't a Clamp work, I'd give Sakura the benefit of the doubt and say she practices a selective blindness where Tomoyo is concerned.  Sakura does notice things, especially feelings between the people around her.  When she confesses to Yukito and he tells her there's someone else he loves, she clearly knows it's Toya.  She's seen how close they are and recognized it as more than just friendship.  If she can see that, she should be able to see the same difference in the way Tomoyo feels toward her.  But she doesn't.  At all.  Despite Tomoyo constantly cooing over her, blushing over her, videotaping her and watching them in the privacy of her home theater like some rabid stalker, designing sewing and dressing her to the point where she fantasizes about each new costume...

It just doesn't get any more obvious than that.  I love Tomoyo's outrageous obsession with Sakura because she is so open about it - and Sakura remains, to the very end, completely blind to the whole thing.  It's absurd.  And cute.  And sad.  We don't see much of Sakura's other girlfriends, but I can't not mention her sweet shy friend with the crush on their teacher.  A ten year old girl in love with her teacher - and he seems to return the sentiments.  That's just wrong.  So very wrong.  But it doesn't come off that way at all.  Sakura encourages her to give him presents, feels happy for her when they're seen together in sweet quiet moments (which could be a father-daughter scene if you pretend they aren't teacher-student in love with each other).  It's outrageous.  Never would you see that outside anime.  It's practically loli.  What saves it is that you never get the impression they're doing anything physical, and with the sappy sweet theme of the anime you can easily imagine the teacher waiting eight years for her to be old enough for him.  No...it still seems wrong. But it's Clamp, and they do it in such an innocent manner you can't help but feel for the girl...and to squee when she blushes over her very nice and sweet sensei.  Yeah, it's the innocent anime you have to watch out for. I also adore her spazzed friend with the pigtails and the pathological liar for a boyfriend.  They remind me of Molly and the geeky Melvin from Sailor Moon.  You don't know whether to feel sorry for her, for having such poor taste, or to feel glad that even a nutcake like him can get a pretty girl to put up with his antics.

Then we come to my actual reason for searching out the original Japanese version of the series.  The shounen ai.  I watched the dubbed version on television and fell for "Julian" (which is the stupidest name for a guy, considering they thought Yukito was too un-American to use in the dub).  Yukito, the snow bunny with a bottomless stomach, and Touya, the workaholic with a serious sister complex.  They're perfect for each other.  Most of the places Touya works offer some sort of food, so he can get discounts!  And all through the series, where you find one you find the other.  I love how Sakura has little run-ins with Yuki, goes on 'psudo-dates' with him, and he always ends up taking her to wherever Touya happens to be working that day.  I can't tell if he's using Sakura as an excuse to stop by and visit Touya, or if he's using Touya as a chaparone so he can safely hang out with them both (and not give Sakura any ideas about his completely innocent feelings for her).  I love how Touya's father supports Yuki hanging out all the time.  They even invite him on their family vacations - while Tomoyo is typically left at home.  So it's normal for Touya's "best friend" to go along, but not for Sakura's?  Yeah.  You could say it's because Yukito's "grandparents" are never home, but if you notice, Tomoyo's mother is always working - that's why she has a troupe of strong women bodyguards at her beck and call, to replace her absentee mother and non-existent father.  The way their father treats Yukito reminds me of how his character (in Tsubasa RC) treats Shaoran.  It's funny.  In both anime he's being supportive of Touya or Sakura's love interest character. I also like how Syaoran (Shaoran - it depends on the dvd arc, I think) has a crush on Yukito in the first season.  Touya is all rivals with him, to keep in away from Sakura while he's actually after Yukito.

I'm still not entirely convinced Syaoran's feelings were due just to the fact that Yue was inside Yukito and he was sensing the magic - being drawn to the power, rather than in love with the person.  That's what Yue tells Syaoran when he explains why he's reacting the same way to both Yuki and Sakura.  But you'll notice he never reacted that way to Yue.  Neither did Sakura - even though Yuki tried to tell her the same thing Yue told Syaoran - that they were being drawn to Clow's power.  If it was just the power, they'd have both been attracted to Yue the same way they were to Yukito.  And they weren't.  Sakura admits that despite what she told Yukito, and despite what he told her, she really was in love with him.  I'd wager Syaoran felt the same way.  He just had an alternative love interest, so it was easier for him to pick Sakura and pass his feelings for Yuki off as the power-attraction excuse Yue gave him. I like that Yue never tries to run Touya off with that old, "you're just attracted because Yuki has the same power as Clow and your dad" excuse.  Part of that's probably because he needs Touya's energy to survive, but most of it's because Touya isn't a little ten year old who'd be fooled that easily.  And Yukito clearly returns the feelings, even if he doesn't plan to confess them.  I even like that - how Yuki hesitates after admitting his love for Touya to Sakura.  She knows Touya feels the same way, Yue knows Touya feels the same way (he gave up his power to save Yuki), but Yuki still isn't sure.  It's sweet.  He's so sensitive and carefree but all the while he's afraid to admit how he feels to someone who clearly feels the same.  I don't think they need to confess - the romance is there regardless.

~*~The Cast:  Season 2~*~

Sakura Kinomoto: "I'm just your average fifth grader.  I love P.E., I'm not too crazy about math (but I'm starting to get it), and...oh, yeah!  I spent the last year collecting these magic Clow Cards.  Now that I've found them all and passed the test, I'm Master of the Clow!" Toya Kinomoto: "He's my stupid brother.  Even though he picks on me, I know he really cares.  Magic must run in my family 'cuz people say Toya has a sixth sense." Fujitaka Kinomoto: "That's my dad.  He teaches archaeology at the university, which means he's really smart.  He's a good cook, too.  I love him a lot." Nadeshiko Kinomoto: "She's my mom.  Isn't she pretty?  She passed away when I was little, but it feels like she's still watching over us." Tomoyo: "She's my best friend.  I don't know why, but she's always videotaping my battles.  She aslo makes all of my costumes.  Her mom and my mom were cousins." Syaoran Li: "Syaoran used to be my rival, but now we're good friends.  He was going to go back to Hong Kong, but he ended up staying in Tomoeda for a while longer.  He's been acting funny around me lately.  I wonder why..." Yukito: "Isn't he just to-die for!  I don't know why he likes my brother so much, but I don't mind, 'cuz that means he comes over a lot.  He's smart, kind, handsome, and he has a healthy appetite." Yue: "This is Yukito's true form.  He's known as the Judge and his symbol of power is the moon.  I'm a little scared of him, even though I'm kinda his boss. Kero: "He may look like a plush toy, but he's really the ancient, magical Guardian Beast.  He gives me advice on all my adventures 'cuz he's really smart.  Actually, he's more of a smart-aleck!"

Cerberus: "Kero's true form is a lot...bigger.  Unlike Yukito, Kero knows about his true form.  His symbol is the sun." Eriol: "He just transferred into my class from England.  Eriol is very polite and mature for his age.  He seems to be very interested in me and my friends." Souppy: "He's a talking cat-like creature that lives with Eriol.  He's very wise and likes his peace and quiet.  I've never met him." Spinnel Sun: "This fearsome winged panther appears in my dreams.  [Sakura doesn't know this, but Spinnel Sun is Souppy's true form.]" Nakuru: "This obnoxious girl just transferred into Toya's class.  I think she has a crush on him.  She doesn't like Yukito at all.  Talk about bad taste!" Ruby Moon: "This beautiful woman with butterfly wings also keeps appearing in my dreams.  [Actually, she's not male or female but is Nakurur's true form.]" Clow Reed: "He made the Clow Cards and created Kero and Yue.  Even though he's been dead for many years, his presence is still hovering over Tomoeda."

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